DESCRIPTION: The nomenclature widely accepted for diverse
coals is based primarily on fixed carbon and ash contents
and whether the given coal will or will not coke. The following
properties
are oversimplified. Color - blackH. 2-2½ S.G. 1.15-1.51Light transmission - opaqueLuster - dull to vitreous to submetallic Breakage - blocky
(some bituminous); choncoidal (some
anthracite); subconchoidal (some cannel coal);
etc.Miscellaneous
- additional characteristics follow some of the names under
the next subheading.
OTHER NAMES: Although some coal strata (i.e.,seams or beds)
have been given formal stratigraphic names (see Appendix B, Glossary),
most are considered only members of larger units so their designations
differ from those of most stratigraphic units in two ways: The word
coal is not capitalized and the names are frequently indicated to be
"(informal)." Furthermore, the coal part of the term is
frequently
followed by the word member, seam or bed. Two examples are the Freeport
coal
(informal) of Pennsylvania and the Black Butte coal bed (informal) of
the Green River basin of Wyoming.

. . . coal with the ellipsis replaced
by an adjective such as anthracite, bituminous or cannel or even hard
versus soft.

Anthracite (=hard coal) - black, typically
with a high, almost metallic, luster and a conchoidal fracture. In
addition, some fracture surfaces exhibit a peacock-like play of colors
that resembles those exhibited by films of oil on water.

Black amber - a rarely used trade name, dating
back to at least the 16th century, for "polished velvet black
coal."

Cannel coal (sometimes called cannelite
or candle coal and rarely referred to as parrot coal) -
massive, black, rarely grayish, dull to waxy luster and conchoidal
fracture. Cannel coal appears homogeneous macroscopically despite the
fact that it consists largely of spores that can be seen by using even
a low-power microscope. It ignites easily even with a match, burns like
a candle, and emits a smoky flame.

Koal - trade name used for high-luster
semianthracite, subbituminous or bituminous coal used as a gemrock (see
Figure A).

USES: The traditional giving of a piece
coal as a New Year's gift -- to assure a warm hearth during the next
year -- aside: In a
response to a question about "early Inuit cultures in Alaska . . . (use of) coal, "
archaeologist Stephen Loring notes that "Native Alaskans fashoined coal
into labrets, or lip ornaments. . ."
(Sithsonian 1 Feb. 2013, p. 94). Anthracite and bituminous coal
have
been fashioned by coal miners the world over, for the most part as a
hobby but also for sale (as a way to make a little extra money).
Several articles including
cups and saucers, stones for jewelry (including cameos), paperweights
and replicas of
miners' boots as well as the so-called "traditional coal
sculptures"
(animals, eagles, etc.) made by Vietnamese
artisans grace the cases of collectors and museums. Cannel
coal has been carved into such diverse
things as snuff bottles and wall plaques. "Koal" articles, such
as those shown in Figure A, are sold as souvenirs in West
Virginia. Some cloisonné consists largely of
compressed and indurated coal (dust?). I suspect that
some of the jet pieces -- e.g., the mourning jewelry of the
Victorian era -- were made from some coal rather than jet, which is
lignite, a precursor of coal.

NOTEWORTHY LOCALITIES: Diverse coals from
Pennsylvania (e.g., anthracite from mines in the vicinity of
Wilkes Barre, Lucerne County) and eastern Kentucky, southwestern
Virginia, and West Virginia have been used as noted under the USES
subheading.

REMARKS: Etymology of the word
coal is complicated and sources I have read indicate it unlikely that
any consensus will ever be reached so far as discovering its true
roots. Consequently, it seems best not even to try to summarize
possibilities here. Anyone really interested might start by
reading the account in the Oxford English Dictionary, athough I hasten
to add that for me that account led to more questions than
answers. .

In any case, coal has little history so
far as
its use as a
gemrock. Instead, its place in history, which is long and
multifaceted, is
based primarily on its use as a fuel. Nonetheless, artifacts (dated
1-1100 A.D) from the Uyak and Old Karluk
archaeological sites on Kodiak
Island, and now in the Alutiig Museum,
Koniag, Inc. and Larsen
Bay collections, include a highly polished labret and nose ring
that are recorded as fashioned from coal
(www.mnh.si.edu/lookingbothways) -- however, being
sceptical, I
would have to examine
these pieces before reporting this use as proved; this is so
because photographs of the pieces closely
resemble
polished hematite.

Be my just stated suspicion well-founded or not, coal carvings such as
those alluded to
under the
USES subheading have been fashioned
in many places around the
world. I have
seen examples and convincing photographs as well as well-documented
records of such carvings from England
(Nottinghamshire),
Poland, Wales,
and Vietnam and from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia
in
the United States.

A particularly remarkable
piece,
carved from a single piece of anthracite carved by Charles Harold
Harner ([aka. Horner],1873-1967) during the mid 1930s, depicts several
aspects of the early days of anthracite coal mining in Trevorton,
Pennsylvania with great detail . This carving, which is "table-top size,"
includes such things as the mine opening, a loaded mine car being
pulled by a mule, a train on tracks of the Susquehanna Railroad, and a
lock on the Pennsylvania Canal whereby barges transported the coal to
Harrisburg. Additional
carvings of anthracite coal by Harner, are in George Walaitis' museum
in Frackville, Pennsylvania -- e.g., replicas of "the state capitol
building [that] took five years to complete" and "the Nurthumberland
County courthouse at Sunbury [that] took 3 1/2 years to
complete." In the article listing these pieces, it also is
noted that "Harner's trademark was that all of the carvings were made
from a single piece of anthracite patiently shaped with varying sizes
of pen knives, a hack saw blade and buffed with steel wool or
sandpaper." (Kraus, 1989).

Fine examples of sculpted coal are in
The Anthracite Heritage Museum & Iron
Furnaces
of Scranton, Pennsylvania where several pieces by C. Edgar
Patience are displayed. He, by the way, is the one who sculpted
the two-ton anthracite altar in Wilkes-Barre's
King's College chapel and whose works have been displayed in such
places as the Smithsonian Institution and the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. In addition, some fine carvings made by local miners
are also in the museum.

Another intriguing item made from
Pennsylvania anthracite is the replica of a beer
bottle, dated 1962, the year of the 100th anniversary of the founding
of Kaier's Brewery of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. As shown on the
internet site home.earthlink.net/
~kaiersbrewery this highly
polished "bottle" has the letters, "Kaier's
Mascot" (also highly polihsed) standing in
relief within a regularly pockmarked, oval shaped area.

Coal (though not as
a gemrock) is the state rock of Kentucky(?),
Utah and West Virginia(?).

SIMULANTS:

Coal dust plus resin - Some curios -- e.g.,
candles and statuettes -- have been molded, carved or sculpted from
this material. - [Texture is recognizably different from that of
any coal.].